Phil Bildner profile picture

Phil Bildner

Good Luck Exploring the Infinite Abyss

About Me

I am Phil. What you see is what you get.

Phil Bildner's Website

I am 40 years old. I useD to be a lawyer, and I also useD to be a middle school teacher in the New York City Public Schools. Now I write books for kids and teens. I get to travel around the country in order to visit schools and talk to students about my books. How lucky can one person be?

So I write books for kids and teens. My first book, "Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy," won the Texas Bluebonnet Award, and that one award opened up a world of opportunities. I've written three other picture books, "Twenty One Elephants," "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," and "The Greatest Game Ever Played." That last title came out just a few months back. As did my first teen novel, "Playing the Field." Boy did that book piss the reviewers off! But (most) teen readers loved it, and for me, that's all that mattered.

But my big project, my project of a lifetime, launched on February 27, 2007. It's a collaborative effort with #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator, Loren Long. Check out my blogs to learn more about it (as well as the separate Myspace Page which you can link to from my "Top Friends or from this link:"

The Barnstormers
Get the code at www.winterrowd.com
I live in Brooklyn, New York in a kick-ass loft in Clinton Hill. Before Brooklyn, I lived in Manhattan for over a decade, mostly in the West Village. And before that, I grew up on Long Island (but I like to keep that on the dl).

I mos def like to have a good time. I'm incredibly active. I'm a gym-junkie. I like to go running. I snowboard (though I admit I suck), I play tennis and softball. I useD to play hoops 24/7, but unfortunately, the legs don't allow me to do the things I was once able to do.

I live with my boyfriend of ten years. He likes to have almost as much fun as I do. Like me, he's a big kid. I've never met anyone so genuine and so real in my entire life. He has the kindest heart and the most gentle soul. He's beautiful, expressive and a freakin' riot. Welcome to my world!

My Interests

Running, Writing, Snowboarding (though I still pretty much suck), Good Music, My Mac and My iPod, Working Out, the New York Mets, Traveling, Gay Rights, Keepin' Up with Technology, DDR, Guitar Hero III, New Orleans, Tennis, Baseball
Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I'd like to meet:

Bono, Bill Clinton, Any of My Former Students Years Down the Road After They've Graduated College, Bart Giamatti (though this one's going to be tougher than all the others), Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson (again)

Music:

Barenaked Ladies, Dave Matthews Band, Garth Brooks, Deborah Cox, Phish, Grateful Dead, Better Than Ezra, White Stripes, Idina Menzel, Kanye West, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Indigo Girls, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani, Tupac Shakur, Fall Out Boy, Madonna, Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Dixie Chicks, Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, Marvin Gaye, Maroon 5, Linkin' Park, P!nk, Leona Lewis, Rascal Flatts, John Mayer

Movies:

Napoleon Dynamite, Crash, Field of Dreams, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Natural, Parenthood, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Corporation, The Control Room, When the Levies Broke, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Bowling for Columbine, High School Musical, Fight Club, Garden State, Donnie Darko, An Inconvenient Truth, Cars, Three O'Clock High, Superbad, Saved!, High School Musical, Knocked Up, Shut Up and Sing

Television:

Boondocks, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, The Daily Show, LOGO, Nip/Tuck, Weeds, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, ESPN Classic, Melrose Place, Samantha Who, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Kyle XY, Entourage, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Beverly Hills 90210, St. Elsewhere, Californication, Family Guy

Books:

Perks of Being a Wallflower, Speak, A Wish for Wings That Work, Yo Yes, Captain Underpants, Playing the Field, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, Godless, Heaven, 13, Birdland, What My Mother Doesn't Know, Frindle, Catcher in the Rye, What's in a Name, From the Notebooks of Melanin Son, Miracle's Boys, I Dream of Trains, A Confederacy of Dunces, Looking for Alaska, Rash, Boy Meets Boy, The Kite Runner, Middlesex, Busted, Deadline

My Blog

Inked!

Inked!I got my tattoo today. Hotness! Or should I say, naa-ice!I took a little trip over to Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side. It was the perfect place to have it done. Dare Devil Tattoo.Chuck D...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:50:00 PST

12 Cents for a Gallon of Gas!

I live in Brooklyn. I don't own a car. I barely even drive. So the whole $4.00 per gallon of gas thing isn't that big a deal to me. To be honest, I see it going as high as $6.00 or $7.00 a gallon....
Posted by Phil Bildner on Fri, 23 May 2008 11:33:00 PST

Getting Inked!

So I'm thinking about getting my first tattoo. Yeah, I'm finally getting inked. The tattoo is going to be an ambigram, a graphical figure that spells out a word not only in its form as presented, bu...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Fri, 16 May 2008 06:34:00 PST

In Just Two Days...

We’re two days away from what should be an amazing evening. And even more kids are slated to perform, not just the ones listed on the flier.Hope you’re able to make it!...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:31:00 PST

Barnstormers in Arizona!

We recently kicked off our BARNSTORMERS: TALES OF THE TRAVELIN’ NINE, BOOK 3 in the great state of Arizona. We hit many stops in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and then we spend a couple days d...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:14:00 PST

NOLA Brigade -- The NBA All Star Game

It’s a nice thing when good kids get rewarded for doing good things.When the National Basketball Association learned about our group, they gave us forty free tickets to the NBA All-Star Game. T...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:52:00 PST

NOLA Brigade, Note 4...Oh, The Places We Slept!

During our recent New Orleans trip, we crammed about a month’s worth of activities into a single week (or more accurately, nine days). Many nights, we didn’t sleep more than three or four...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:19:00 PST

Pillow Fight Madness! Union Square Park, New York City

Mayhem! Chaos! Bedlam!Over the week, about 1500-2000 of my closest friends (well, not really) joined me for a massive pillow fight in New York City’s Union Square Park.The annual event was spo...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:53:00 PST

Proper Attire: Governor’s Resignation Press Conference

I have no idea what to call this, but I’m certain it’s no coincidence.In 2004, Governor Jim McGreevey of New Jersey resigned from office because of a sex scandal. During his resignation p...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:32:00 PST

The Simon Pulse Blogfest!

So next week, I'll be participating in the first ever Simon Pulse BlogfestFrom March 14 through March 27, Simon & Schuster will be launching the first annual Blogfest. Over the course of this two-wee...
Posted by Phil Bildner on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:58:00 PST